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Current treatments for cancer patients include chemotherapy, radiation, hormonal therapy and immune-mediated therapies. However, despite favorable initial response, many patients develop recurrences or relapses. Resistance to cancer therapy has paved the way for novel therapeutic approaches. Dr. Benjamin Bonavida and his colleagues are working toward identifying the mechanisms causing cancer patients to develop resistance to treatment. The classification of such mechanisms will allow for the development of novel therapeutics to overcome such resistance.

Bonavida and colleagues have focused on areas of both cellular and molecular immunology as they relate to infection and cancer. During the last several years, the laboratory has focused on the molecular mechanism by which rituximab (chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody), approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1999 for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's B lymphoma, mediates its effects when used alone or in combination with chemotherapy.

Bonavida's group has also been interested in investigating the molecular mechanism by which cancer patients develop resistance to immunotherapy. At present, immunotherapy is being considered as a novel therapeutic approach in the treatment of cancer patients who do not respond to conventional therapies. Several studies have examined the underlying mechanisms of immune-resistance and have identified several gene products involved. In particular, Dr. Bonavida and associates have identified the role of the transcription repressor YY1 in the regulation of immune-resistance.